California budget vote dominates agenda

As reported by the Sacramento Bee:

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

Working under a midnight deadline to pass a budget, lawmakers face a busy day – though still likely a smoother endeavor than the protracted, head-banging budget battles of yore.

Central pieces of the budget deal announced last week include a hefty deposit into the state’s rainy day fund, $1.3 billion for new state office work (potentially including Capitol renovations) and the repeal of a rule denying welfare payments for new kids that lawmakers have attacked for years as cruel and counterproductive. Some other pieces of note:

▪  Affordable housing has vaulted up the agenda this year. But Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t offering money for nothing: if lawmakers want hundreds of millions for lower-cost accommodations, Brown wants them to agree to controversial language easing barriers to local building.

▪ The politically perilous vehicle registration fee would increase by $10, though a long-sought transportation funding deal still hasn’t coalesced. …